In 2017 there was no other record quite like Hannah Peel’s Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia. Whilst it’s listed as my 2nd favourite record of 2017, ask me on any alternate day and depending on my mood, thoughts and where I am it could quite easily be number 1. This is an instrumental seven-movement piece composed for analogue synthesizers and a full traditional 29-piece colliery brass band, the brass being recorded live at The Barnsley Civic Theatre with Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio team. It is quite simply a breathtaking record. I know that word is over used in music writing, but in this case, believe me it’s true. The album soundtracks the tale of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself. On her journey she witnesses the sunrise through the dusty nebula, a deep space cluster and many more sights and sounds before eventually arriving at the planet of passed souls. The juxtaposition of Hannah’s keyboards and the brass orchestra works perfectly together creating a hugely cinematic spectrum of music that has some gentle synergies with Also sprach Zarathustra, Op 30:Prelude by Richard Strauss. Having seen Hannah talk about this album at her shows it seems that the concept behind it is linked to Hannah’s previous record Awake But Always Dreaming which was inspired by her grandmother’s dementia. When Hannah visited an Alzheimer’s Research Centre she saw that brain neurons observed through a microscope looked just like stars in space. So, this journey isn’t perhaps really an external one at all but an exploration taking place in the mind. If it is it certainly ends with the most exultant piece of music as life passes away to the planet of passed souls. As I wrote in my previous post, there are two records this year that have made me shed a tear. This is the second one. Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia is an evocative and epic melancholy musical journey, one which I have travelled with many times this year. It’s an album that really needs to be absorbed in one sitting via headphones with no interruptions and no pauses, ideally whilst gazing up at the stars. Absolute perfection.
One of the greatest things about music is that, as a listener, every time you feel that the sonic train has come to the end of the line and hit the buffers, with every last idea used up and spent, there’s always another platform with another train waiting to take you on a further journey of infinite discovery. Sometimes the new journey won’t even be by the same form of transport. Maybe next time it will be by sea or road or even into space, such are the endless possibilities. Hannah Peel is one of those extraordinary artists who is exploring those possibilities, her forthcoming third album Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia creating parallels between the human brain and space. For this record Hannah undertook research spanning from conversations between the public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Marek Kukula, and extensive reading of books on theoretical physics, as well as memoirs on dreams. Writing a song about being ‘in da club’ or ‘be what you wanna be’ for Spotify playlist maximisation is not what Hannah Peel is about. This is music with intelligence, thought and a graceful complexity behind it; and as we go with her on that journey Peel confirms that no matter where we travel to and what we discover, ‘we are all creatures of the land’ (A Land, Jacquetta Hawkes, 1951), and that “…in all that immensity of black holes, supernovas, galaxies, nebulae, the most astonishing and the most complex natural object we have discovered in the entire universe is right here on earth, it’s in our heads, it’s the human brain” (Marek Kukula, May 2017). Archid Orange Dwarf is the second song to be taken as a single from the album (the first Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula I featured here). It’s a hugely evocative instrumental piece that combines analogue synths and brass with startling effect and gives reason to quietly start whispering the words masterpiece as you step into Hannah's rocket to fly. Just beautiful. Hannah Peel - Archid Orange Dwarf
I was very late to the party with Hannah Peel. But from the moment I first saw her live supporting Vaults (R.I.P) I instantly knew she was something special. For here was an artist creating pop music (of sorts) that had vision, originality and something buried within it that was raw, emotional, very human and connected with her audience. Awake But Always Dreaming, Hannah's second album, ended up on a few selective end of year lists and if I was rewriting mine now, it would have found a place on that as well. Now comes news of new material and once again it looks like Hannah's music is going to be taking listeners on a fascinating journey of discovery, with an album ready to roll out this September called Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia. The record tells the tale of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself. The album is no ordinary pop album though. It’s a seven-movement piece composed for analogue synthesizers and a full traditional 29-piece colliery brass band, the brass being recorded live at The Barnsley Civic Theatre with Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio team. The first release from it is a track called Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula and it’s absolutely breathtaking. It’s full of deep melancholy and spaciousness but equally it soars with a commanding wonder. Take five minutes out of your day to bury yourself away somewhere and absorb yourself in this gorgeous piece of music. Hannah Peel - Sunrise Through The Dusty Nebula
